Magento – M2 | sales email > customize price display > how to show only grand totals

Found out the issue. I should not have been using the code sample from app/design/frontend/base/default/template/email/order/invoice/items.phtml but should have used this snippet of code

<tfoot>
    <?php echo $this->getChildHtml('order_totals')?>
</tfoot>

from here app/design/frontend/base/default/template/email/order/items.phtml

In addition to that, my sales.xml file had to be modified, specifically the <sales_email_order_shipment_items> block to mimic what is found in <sales_email_order_items>:

<sales_email_order_shipment_items>
    <block type="sales/order_email_items" name="items" template="email/order/items.phtml">
        <action method="addItemRender"><type>default</type><block>sales/order_email_items_order_default</block><template>email/order/items/order/default.phtml</template></action>
        <action method="addItemRender"><type>grouped</type><block>sales/order_email_items_order_grouped</block><template>email/order/items/order/default.phtml</template></action>
        <block type="sales/order_totals" name="order_totals" template="sales/order/totals.phtml">
            <action method="setLabelProperties"><value>colspan="5" align="right" style="padding:3px 9px"</value></action>
            <action method="setValueProperties"><value>align="right" style="padding:3px 9px"</value></action>
            <block type="tax/sales_order_tax" name="tax" template="tax/order/tax.phtml">
                <action method="setIsPlaneMode"><value>1</value></action>
            </block>
        </block>
    </block>
    <block type="core/text_list" name="additional.product.info" />
</sales_email_order_shipment_items>

Retrieved the value of this field and pass it as a param in the following function

app/code/core/Mage/Sales/Model/Order.php

  public function sendNewOrderEmail()
    {
     /*Existing Code*/
     if ($this->getCustomerIsGuest()) {
            $templateId = Mage::getStoreConfig(self::XML_PATH_EMAIL_GUEST_TEMPLATE, $storeId);
            $customerId = Mage::getModel('customer/customer')->load($this->getCustomerId());
            $companyname = $customerId->getCompanyname();
            $storeID = $customerId->getStoreId();
        } else {
            $templateId = Mage::getStoreConfig(self::XML_PATH_EMAIL_TEMPLATE, $storeId);
            $customerId = Mage::getModel('customer/customer')->load($this->getCustomerId());
            $customerName = $this->getCustomerName();
            $storeID = $customerId->getStoreId(); // fetch your custom attribute
        }

        $mailer->setTemplateParams(array(
          'order'        =>  $this,
          'billing'      =>  $this->getBillingAddress(),
          'payment_html' => $paymentBlockHtml,
          'storeid'  => $storeID 
       ));
     }

After making this change. edit Transactional Email to include this param. Go to System > Transactional Emails > New Order Email and add like below :

 {{ var storeid }}
 {{var order.getShippingAddress.format('html')}}

hen this would get displayed in your Order Email in 'Shipping Address' Information right at the Start

P.S. I would advice you to override the core blocks instead of making changes in the core